Ukraine-Russia war latest: Biden allows Zelensky to conduct long-range missile strikes inside Russia

In a secret factory in central Russia, engineers are manufacturing hundreds of decoy drones meant to overwhelm Ukrainian defences as they try to protect against a horrific new weapon.

The plant in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone recently started churning out thermobaric drones alongside the decoys, an Associated Press investigation has found. The thermobaric warheads create a vortex of high pressure and heat that can penetrate thick walls. They suck out all the oxygen in their path, and have a fearsome reputation because of the injuries inflicted even outside the initial blast site: Collapsed lungs, crushed eyeballs, brain damage.

Joe Biden witnessed the devastation of drought up close as the first sitting American president to visit the Amazon rainforest.

The massive Amazon region, which is about the size of Australia, stores huge amounts of the world’s carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas driving climate change.

But development is rapidly depleting the world’s largest tropical rainforest, and rivers are drying up.Biden said the fight against climate change has been a defining cause of his presidency — he’s pushed for cleaner air, water and energy, including legislation that marked the most substantial federal investment in history to fight global warming.

But he’s about to hand the nation over to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who is highly unlikely to prioritize the Amazon or anything related to climate change, which he’s cast as a “hoax.”

Trump has pledged to again pull out of the Paris agreement, a global pact forged to avert the threat of catastrophic climate change, and he says he’ll rescind unspent funds in energy efficiency legislation.

North Korea has supplied Russia with long-range rockets and artillery systems, Ukrainian intelligence assessment has found, amid reports of Pyongyang deploying 12,000 of its soldiers to Moscow to fight against Ukraine.

Pyongyang has provided 50 domestically produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20 updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems, Financial Times reported citing the assessment.

Some of the weapons have been moved to the border region of Kursk where Moscow has deployed 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers to retake the territory from Ukrainian troops. The Russian forces are facing difficulty in pushing back Ukraine’s cross-border incursion launched on 6 August.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that “missiles speak for themselves” and “such things are not announced”, after reports that Washington had granted Kyiv permission to conduct strikes deeper into Russia with US-made missiles.

Zelensky has been calling for the US and UK to agree to allow them to strike infrastructure such as airfields that contribute to the barrages of missiles and drones that strike across Ukraine on a near-daily basis.

Washington’s decision to let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with long-range US missiles could lead to World War Three and will receive a swift response, Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Russian upper house’s international affairs committee, said on Sunday, according to the TASS news agency.

Two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision revealed the significant reversal of Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict earlier on Sunday.

Sir Keir Starmer has “no plans” to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin as he said “we need to double down” on support for Ukraine with the conflict approaching its 1,000th day.

The Prime Minister pledged that Ukraine was “top” of his agenda at this week’s G20 summit of world leaders and told reporters that “there’s got to be full support as long as it takes”.

There has been concern about the level of support the US may continue to give Ukraine when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January.

Earlier this week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to Mr Putin on what was the Russian leader’s first publicly announced conversation with the sitting head of a major western power in nearly two years.

Asked if he had any plans to make a similar call, Sir Keir said: “It’s a matter for Chancellor Scholz who he speaks to. I have no plans to speak to Putin.”

The West should not back down from supporting Ukraine with long-range missiles despite Vladimir Putin’s fresh threats of possible war with Nato, Kremlin critics, military leaders and Ukrainian officials previously toldThe Independent.

Prominent Putin critic Sir Bill Browder told The Independent: “[Putin’s] psychology is one where he’s provoked by weakness, not by strength, and the only way to deal with Russia is to put a boot on the throat.

“This is all bluster, as far as I can see. Good luck to him if he wants to go to war with Nato. He would lose that war in a matter of days.”

Vladimir Putin warned it would be an act of war back in September when reports emerged that Joe Biden was considering “working out” the possibility of US long-range missiles being used inside Russia. He told state media: “It would mean that Nato countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia.

“If that’s the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face.”

The first deep strikes are likely to be carried out using Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) rockets, which have a range of up to 190 miles (306 km), according to the sources.

ATACMS are a long-range guided missile that gives operational commanders the “immediate firepower to win the deep battle”.

Produced by US global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin, the missiles carry a 500lb (227kg) class blast fragmentation warhead.

The weapons are fitted with a specialised GPS system and have a maximum range of 300km (around 190 miles) – though the ones supplied to Ukraine have a shorter range and carry cluster munitions.

When fired, the clusters open in the air, releasing hundreds of bomblets rather than a single warhead.

The other missile being touted the British/French made Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG missile has a much longer estimated range of up to 550 km (340miles).

Leaders of the major democracies in the G7 repeated their pledge on Saturday to impose severe consequences on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The consequences will include sanctions, export controls and other measures, the G7 said. The group will continue supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary, it added.

“Russia remains the sole obstacle to just and lasting peace,” it said in a statement on Saturday. The statement was adopted “in support of Kyiv as the thousandth day of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine approaches.”

“The G7 confirms its commitment to imposing severe costs on Russia through sanctions, export controls and other effective measures. We stand united with Ukraine,” the statement added.

Italy currently holds the 2024 rotating presidency of the G7. Other member states include United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and Britain.